1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having a display panel provided with a display screen for displaying information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, personal computers (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) have been widely used not only in office but also at home. As one type of PC, the so-called “notebook type personal computer” (hereinafter referred to as “note PC”) is widely known. The notebook PC has a first enclosure that is a main unit having a keyboard on its top surface and a second enclosure that is a display unit having a display panel and coupled to the first enclosure by a hinge member in an openable and closable manner. The second enclosure is opened to be approximately upright on the first enclosure when it is used, and is closed to lie on the first enclosure when it is not used.
When the second enclosure is opened and closed with respect to the first enclosure, a large load is applied to the lower part of the second enclosure where the hinge member and the display panel are attached. For this reason, the lower part of the second enclosure needs to be sufficiently strong. Accordingly, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-124171 proposes a technique for attaching a bracket, to which a display panel is fixed, to a hinge member fixed to the housing of a second enclosure by overlapping the bracket with the hinge member. Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-216273 proposes a technique for supporting each side surface of a display panel and the housing (cover) of a second enclosure by means of hinge hardware having a bending portion.
However, according to the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-124171, because the bracket and the hinge member are attached while overlapping each other, the thickness of the second enclosure is large and thus it is difficult to meet the demand for reducing the thickness of an electronic apparatus.
Moreover, according to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-216273 in which each side surface of the display panel and the cover are supported by the hinge hardware having a bending portion, although it is possible to reduce vibration and impact applied to the display panel, this document never mentions that the lower part of the second enclosure is made sufficiently strong.